GREEN DRIVEN TO SUCCEED
Rookie looks back on days when he made 55-mile trip early in morning to practice with Curry
DENVER — Sunrise would arrive later, but Jalen Green could not wait. He had another long drive ahead of him with a gym in Pleasanton, Calif., and workouts with the most accomplished shooter in basketball history at the end of the road.
Green was 17 years old, playing for Prolific Prep in Napa, Calif.
Stephen Curry was a two-time MVP and three-time NBA champion.
This was no playdate. Curry was getting ready for a season. Green was already driven, plotting a course toward the greatness he saw in himself and desperately wanted.
At 4:30 a.m. on those mornings in 2019, Green would make the 55-mile drive for workouts, returning for the start of classes each day at Napa Christian and then practice with his Prolific Prep team at the end of the day.
At 6 a.m., they would go to work, pushing themselves through drills that even now both described as “intense.”
“It was a great opportunity to get some reps in, try to push ourselves,” Curry said, as if he was working out with Draymond instead of Jalen Green. “I know he drove a pretty long way to make it down there, but you could tell how much it mattered to be in that type of intense atmosphere for a workout, knowing I was getting ready for a season and him having aspirations for getting to the league.
“He had that competitive drive. He wasn’t shy or afraid of any of the workouts we were doing. And obviously, his athleticism was next to nobody. It was cool to watch. He could shoot that thing, too, so it was pretty good vibes in there.”
Green had met Curry at an SC30 select camp in 2018 and kept in touch. Curry’s trainer offered Green an invitation to join Curry’s preseason workouts. Green did not hesitate to take him up on the offer.
“I want to be great,” Green said. “Steph is great. It just happened. Steph has been great to me. I was talking to him in the (G-League) bubble, too. When I was going 0 for 8, something like that, he told me, ‘There were a lot of times I went 0 for 10. It happens.’ He just told me to keep my head up. He was like a big bro.”
Curry’s workouts are famously demanding. No one is born with the touch to routinely knock down 30-footers.
When Green described those sessions, he needed only one word, the same word Curry chose: intense.
“I was driving back and forth … just to get a different take, to get a different taste of him showing different skills and stuff like that,” Green said. “Luka (Doncic) was there, too, at one of the workouts.
“Just how to move without the ball, how to stay disciplined and get in shape and how to tune in on your body. He knows everything about his body, what’s wrong, what it is if something’s wrong. On his shot, how to use more legs. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Most players need to see those sorts of sessions to understand the work that goes into excellence.
Curry’s father, Dell, played 16 NBA seasons, and even Stephen needed to learn the demands of his chosen profession for himself.
“I had that same experience,” Curry said. “I didn’t get mine until I came out of college. I was getting ready for the draft and I went and worked out with some other rookies and … Idan Ravin, who was a trainer who worked with Carmelo Anthony. You think you are working out at a certain speed, a certain intensity with a certain purpose, and then you kind of get exposed a little bit.
“The guys who don’t back down from that challenge are the ones who rise to the top because that’s what it takes. You don’t know what you don’t know until you figure it out. That was (Green’s) experience. It’s kind of cool to be on the other side of it now, what I consider normal. Challenging workouts are what I consider the expectation. It was his introduction to the NBA, what it takes to be successful.”
Green still carries and applies those lessons. Rockets assistant coach John Lucas, who has worked with the most driven of stars including Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and James Harden, said the Rockets’ prized rookie is “a delight” as a student.
Rockets coach Stephen Silas, who worked with James, Curry and Doncic at the nascent stages of their careers, raves about Green’s work ethic, with one concern.
“I love him because he is a great kid, first and foremost,” Silas said. “He listens, tries, applies coaching. He is a v ery, very good worker. I mean, almost to the point we have to (say), ‘Hey, that’s a little too much.’ Shoot in the morning, lift, practice, go home and come back at night and get more shooting in. That’s a good recipe for a good player.”
For Curry, as he prepares to face Green with the Rockets on Sunday for the first time, there is an added satisfaction in knowing that he helped a player who would end up playing for Silas. Silas was not just a Warriors assistant when Curry was a rookie in 2009-10. They worked and studied together.
They have remained close to the point that Curry wanted the Warriors to bring Silas back when Silas became a lead assistant with the Mavericks in 2018.
“It’s so cool,” Curry said. “Coach Silas, I watched film with him every day for a year and a half until he went to Charlotte and joined his pops there. Really understand his approach to the game. He’s super humble, super knowledgeable about the game. He has a great way of communicating. He can relate to pretty much anybody. Hopefully, he connects with Jalen right away and Jalen understands that coach Silas wants you to be successful.
“I love Stephen. I love everything about him. I know Jalen is in a great spot, trying to build something special.”
Curry said he would “for sure” be pleased if Green and Silas make one another a success with the Rockets, “just not at the cost of us.”
The Rockets do not yet pose too much of a threat. They went into Saturday’s game in Denver at 1-7. The Warriors are 7-1 with the top-rated defense in the
NBA. Green has averaged 14.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists, showing flashes of the rare abilities that made him the second pick of the 2021 draft.
Though Curry, last season’s scoring champion who was third in the MVP balloting, is not ready to pass a stardom torch to anyone, there is some satisfaction in passing along what he has learned.
“It’s special, for sure,” Curry said. “You obviously have a lot to offer. I’m still obviously in the fight. I have a lot left in the tank. Some of these dudes are coming after your spot. You want to use that as fuel to keep pushing. You also want to give back to the game in the sense of anybody that wants to come work out,
I’m always open.
“One, it makes me better because it keeps me juiced and energized. Also, I know it keeps the league, in a small way, headed in the right direction, passing down what I know and how I work.”